The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education tackled a record 1,400-page budget proposal document from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education last month.
The preliminary education budget requests included 20 new appropriation lines and 30 new relief fund lines. Education promises to be a top priority in the 2023 legislative session, considering the number of bills filed on the topic and the long list of increased funding, program expansions and new plans in the governor's State of the State address.
Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven spoke to members of the committee as they began delving into the budget Jan. 25. She told legislators the pandemic exacerbated gaps and led to academic declines across the nation.
"Yet we know it is those closest to the classroom who directly impact our students' learning," she said. "Therefore, the state board of education prioritized the request of full funding of the formula to assist our local school districts and charter schools in educating our almost 900,000 pre-K-12 students enrolled in our public schools. We also prioritized a request to consider transportation funding."
She laid out a success plan focusing on four points: early childhood and early literacy, including affordable childcare; success-ready students, including expansion of youth apprenticeships; safe and healthy students, including mental health supports, school safety grants and drills; and educator workforce, including a focus on climate and culture, and teacher pay.
Rep. Tim Taylor, R-Bunceton, pointed out more than 61 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years, and asked if Vandeven could point to one factor that was the primary cause.
"I wish that I could, because we would solve that, right?" she said. "This is a very complex issue, but no one in this room should be satisfied or not really shaken by that number. Any profession that looks at losing 61 percent within the first five years, we have a lot to examine under that issue."
She said pay is a part of it, but also respect for the profession of teaching and work conditions.
Vandeven said the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Blue Ribbon Commission tried to come up with solutions to increase teachers in the classroom and keep teachers in the profession with particular attention to teacher pay -- a potential fix some legislators have called "low-hanging fruit." But the commission will begin diving into culture and climate as well, she said.
The budget bill includes a request for hundreds of millions to meet the state's maximum of 75 percent of reimbursable costs for school district transportation. The proposal also includes an additional $18 million to cover increased fuel costs.
Meredith said he has heard that one school is encountering transportation difficulties because students who live close to school and walk to school have a difficult path crossing dangerous roadways.
Districts are required to provide transportation for students that are 3.5 miles away from the school and can choose to cover students up to a mile away and be reimbursed, Deputy Commissioner Kari Monsees said. But if districts wanted to be reimbursed for providing transportation within a mile, that would likely need to be allowed in statute, not just in a budget alteration, he said.
Meredith said he'd like to figure out what that could cost.
DESE requested $5 million for the Grow Your Own Start-up Grants used to help create programs to recruit members of the community and students as young as middle school to become teachers in their hometown. That funding item was not recommended by the governor.
Chairman Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, asked why the governor did not recommend the funding.
"It does seem to fit with the theme and the thrust of the budget, which is to, as far as I'm concerned, to recruit and retain teachers, and there are some really good grow your own programs around the state ... I'm just curious," he said.
Monsees said the department did not know why the item was not recommended.
"This being a priority of the Blue Ribbon Commission -- I served on that blue ribbon commission," said Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City. "We worked really hard to get those recommendations, and ... thank you for including it. I'm disappointed that the governor decided not to. Maybe we can prevail upon him to have a change of heart here."
The programs were originally funded with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, or ESSER funds, but Monsees said the stable funding was requested because it is a long-term program.
"If you think about convincing a ninth-grader that they might want to follow through with a career teaching path and it's eight years or nine years before they're out of college and ready to fill that kind of role, even if they make that decision and have that passion, that's a long-term investment that needs to be made over time," he said.
There was also a department request to renew funding for the teacher baseline salary grant program, which provided funds to bring minimum teacher pay up to $38,000 in participating districts, plus an additional $7.6 million to include the cost of benefits.
Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, said many districts will raise teacher pay themselves, and local districts are in charge of setting salaries.
"What ultimately then happens with this kind of (grant program), one, we're shifting the responsibility in the conversation to the state, that it's our issue, that we're the ones responsible for setting teacher pay, when it's not. And then secondly, by doing this, we're actually disincentivizing districts to do it the way that we're actually structured to have them do it," Richey said.
Monsees said every district is different, and some districts have such low property values that even a steep tax levy couldn't get them to $38,000 minimum salary.
"We believe in local control. We understand the role that local control plays in all this, but I can't say that it's truly an equal opportunity in all districts across the state," Monsees said.
The hearings mark the start of a long budget process that will continue in the coming weeks.